First time on stage…wearing pyjamas !

Pyjama party

As we all know getting on a stage is pretty frightening. Talking in front of the class in high school was already a scary experience for many of us. I don’t know about you but it certainly was for me. Let me tell you a true story that happened long ago…I was 8 years old. It was Christmas. My father had decided to take all the family to the Bahamas. When we left Montreal it was very cold as usual for winter in Canada, way below zero as it quite often goes minus 30 degrees. I was overwhelmed with excitement thinking about a ‘’summer vacation’’ in the middle of winter. We were travelling by plane and my sisters and myself were looking at the clouds. At some point I told my dad: ‘’daddy! I think the plane stopped because the clouds are not moving’’. My father started laughing loudly. In his reassuring low voice told us not to worry cause if it stops he would go outside and blow on it !

My dad although very strict at times was a loving dad. When we arrived in the Bahamas the first thing I noticed was the wonderful scent of the flowers. One evening my parents decided to go to the lobby room upstairs of the adjacent building. A singer was performing. My grandma was babysitting us girls. While grandma was asleep I convinced my sisters to ‘’escape’’ and go spy on our parents. Wearing our pyjamas we were escalating the stairs on our knees to avoid being seen and finally got to the lobby unnoticed.

We were hiding behind a giant plant. Somehow somebody noticed us and pointed at us. Our father saw us. We almost fainted. We were so scared for ourselves and also for grandma who would surely get reprimanded too. Our father asked the performer to have us sing Jingle Bells on stage. The singer, who’s name was Mickey, accepted with a big laugh. Hopefully my older sister Linda was so at ease on the stage that she saved our ass…Kathleen and myself were literally melting of stage fright ! At the end of the song we had a standing ovation. They had never seen 3 little girls sing Jingle Bells wearing pyjamas.

Music itself gave me lots of pleasure throughout my life and also some of my worst painful deceptions. Being in bands I’ve met some great people, some less great that were soon forgotten, had lots of laughter, some tears…being part of a ‘’gang’’ like a band gives you a great feeling of confidence and assurance that’s for sure and it can become extremely ‘’addictive’’…

But perhaps even more important than all of that is YOU, the listener. You make the difference between rehearsing between 4 walls in a tiny room and suddenly singing on a large stage with lights that make us shine. Without you, how can we be called artists ? So I hope you will always be part of the journey, good times bad times. A journey that is still ahead for you and me.

If you’d like to hear the most recent milestone of that journey, click here to listen to my album, ‘Number 1’.

Thank you so much for being a listener and making it all worthwhile.

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